At the RSA security conference, the National Security Agency (NSA) released Ghidra, a free reverse engineering tool that the organization had been using internally for over a decade.
The tool is ideal for software engineers, but will also be particularly useful for malware analysts.
The NSA's plan was to release Ghidra so security researchers could get used to working with it before applying for positions at the NSA or other government intelligence agencies with which the NSA has previously shared Ghidra.
Ghidra is currently only available for download through its official website, but the NSA also plans to release the source code under an open-source license on GitHub.
The NSA first announced the tool's availability earlier this year, and many were expecting it. The reason is that Ghidra is a free alternative to IDA Pro, a similar reverse engineering tool that costs thousands of dollars per year.
With the NSA's free implementation, most expect Ghidra to capture a large portion of the reverse engineering tool market share within a few weeks, as early user reviews are very positive.
Regarding its technical features, Ghidra is coded in Java, has a graphical user interface (GUI) and runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
According to Rob Joyce, a senior advisor to the National Security Agency and the NSA employee who announced the release of the tool yesterday at the RSA conference, Ghidra can analyze binaries written for a wide variety of architectures and can easily be extended to even more.
Installing the application is very simple and the only requirement is a version of Java Development Kit 11 or a newer version which is needed to run the application's GUI.
In addition to an installation guide, the application's manuals also feature lessons with exercises for beginners, intermediate, and advanced levels that will help users get used to the tool's graphical interface, which is very different from any other similar tool.
Are you already an IDA Pro user? No problem, there's a guide for that too.
Need a keyboard shortcut cheatsheet? No problem, there's one hosted online, here.
Don't like the bright GUI? no problem, there is a dark theme that can be changed from the settings.
More information and download the app
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